Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 13:16:48 -0400
Reply-To: [l--tp--c] at [Mainstream.com]
From: [l--tp--c] at [Mainstream.com]
Subject: SUBSCRIBE FCO JERRY STRATTON 

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              Welcome to the Firearms Coalition Online

The Firearms Coalition Online Bulletin will be an irregular, although
frequent visitor (every two weeks to once a month) in your mailbox.
The bulletin is an electronic version of the bi-monthly _Hard Corps
Report_ plus many of the scripts from the phone mail legislative update
line at (301) 871-3006.  But we also send out detailed information such
as "box scores" of gun rights votes in Congress.  We also take
advantage of the speed of electronic mail to send out special updates
and bulletins that would be too time-sensitive to entrust to the U.S.
Postal Service.

Although we use a list processor to speed delivery and simplify
administration, this list is not a chat group.  There are firearms
discussion groups aplenty.  As moderator, I receive all mail sent to
this list.  Don't expect to see it echoed.  I do read mail, and will
respond to it as I am able.

			 Meet Neal Knox

If you've spent any time at all studying the politics of gun control,
you have heard of Neal Knox.  In an October 26, 1993 profile, _The Wall
Street Journal_ said he "is likely to have a greater impact on the
rapidly escalating firefight over gun control than any other individual
in America."

Currently Second Vice President of NRA, Knox has testified before
Congressional committees at least fifty times since 1966 when he
appeared before the House Subcommittee on Crime against what eventually
became the Gun Control Act of 1968.  He was the founding editor of _Gun
Week_ , editor and publisher of _Handloader_ and _Rifle_ magazines, and
Executive Director of NRA-ILA following the Cincinatti reforms.  For
the past ten years he has worked as a writer and lobbyist supported by
people who believe as he does, that the Second Amendment is about the
fundamental human right to defend self, family, home, and country.

		    The Firearms Coalition

Those who financially support Neal Knox in his work are the Firearms
Coalition.  There are no FC belt buckles, no caps, no rings, just a
bi-monthly newsletter and the good feeling that comes from supporting a
good work.  

Originally a for-profit lobbying business, the Firearms Coalition is
now a non-profit education and information outlet.  The reason for
this change is due the fact that as an officer of NRA, Knox now speaks
for NRA.  His lobbying is now on behalf of NRA.  Since the Firearms
Coalition could be seen as a competing organization, he has been
forced to change how he does what he does.  But he still does the same
thing, and contributions from the Firearms Coalition remain his
principle livelihood -- he takes no money from NRA for his lobbying
efforts.

_The Hard Corps Report_ has come to be known as a reliable source of
straight information on the politics of gun ownership.  Unlike other
political newsletter writers, Knox encourages readers to reproduce and
distribute his mailings asking only that the source be cited and that
the Firearms Coalition's address appear.  Except perhaps for NRA's
alerts and releases, no other pro-gun organization's mailings are so
widely distributed on the Net.

                    The Mainstream Connection

The Firearms Coalition Online Bulletin is now hosted from Mainstream,
an Internet services provider who also hosts mailing lists for NRA and
other firearms-oriented organizations. Mainstream and the Firearms
Coalition are separate entities with separate, but coinciding agendas.
Chris Knox is solely responsible for the content of the Firearms
Coalition Online Bulletin.  Many thanks to Craig Peterson for his
help.
 

Chris Knox
[c k nox] at [crl.com]